Cassie giggles.
It's not an unusual sound but it's enough to make him look up from his book and raise a dark eyebrow at the girl across from him. She's staring at him, giggling over the rim of her coffee mug, only to avert her eyes when she sees him staring back - obviously, she had not planned on getting caught.
"What's so funny, sweetheart?" Jake settles back in his chair, waiting for what's sure to be an amusing answer.
"Did you know you read at a pace of two hundred and four words per minute?" she can't even set her coffee mug down before she starts rambling. "If you count the number of seconds it takes for your eyes move across the page and the average number of words in a line across a page that size - "
"Cassie, Cassie!" Jake interrupts before she can disappear into one of her hallucinations. "I have another calculation for you."
"What?"
Her big blue eyes widen with an eagerness that, was he sixteen, would have had him calling her a nerd but here, in the comfortable warmth of his house, it just makes him fall in love with her a little more. A crooked little smirk curls his mouth and there's a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes.
"C'mere." he shoves his chair away from the table and motions her over.
A little confused, but hoping this is going in the direction she thinks it is, she stands up from her chair and walks over to Jake, who tugs her into his lap. When she's securely wrapped in his arms, he tilts his head and presses a kiss into the curve of her neck, where he can feel her pulse jump under his mouth.
"What - um, oh! - Jake, what was that calculation?"
"How," he shifts a little, mouth moving against her neck. "How long can we kiss before we need oxygen?"
"Well," Cassie's grin is a little mischief, a little excitement, as she brings her hands up to his face. With a hand on either side of his face, she lets her eyes meet his and barely teases her mouth over his. "I suppose we will have to explore certain factors and find the parameters of the equation."
"Oh?"
Jake is captivated, now, blue eyes locked with hers.
"Yes." Cassie murmurs, voice soft and she's practically purring. "For instance, are you kissing my mouth or my neck?"
"Whichever you want, darlin'." his voice is a little shaky, a little husky, and he'd like to have more control than he does.
"Well," she releases him just long enough to reposition so that she's straddling him, hips sinking down into his with enough friction to pull a groan from him. "If you kiss my neck, I lose my breath instantly, a fraction of a second. But, if I'm participating, with my synesthesia as a definite factor, fifteen seconds."
Jake gives a non-committal hum, tugging her blouse from her skirt, and starting in on the little pearl buttons. She rocks her hips a little, just enough to distract him before she leans down to kiss his neck. He's not sure if it's her mouth on his neck or the subtle rocking motion of her hips but something knocks the air from his lungs.
"Shit, Cass!" he grunts, wrapping his arms around her small frame. "You tryin' to kill me, sweetheart?"
"No." her giggle isn't believable but he'll buy it for now - if only because he's this close to making a mess of himself. "Now, where was I?"
Her mouth is hot and damp where she latches onto his neck, teeth grazing sensitive flesh, and tongue soothing the irritated skin. It only takes a few seconds of this to have him panting for air. Finding this a little unfair, Jake forces his body to cooperate and lifts hips into her, denim-clad erection rubbing her through her damp panties.
It's enough.
She whimpers a little, rocking her hips a little more forcefully, seeking friction. "Cassie," his hand is warm trailing up her thigh, skirt hooking on his wrist. "You sure 'bout this?"
"Yes."
She lifts her head from his neck, looking adorably disheveled, and flushed with want. And, dear God, if it isn't the sexiest damn sight Jake's ever laid eyes on. He's never been sure about much, always dealing with trust issues that were more to do with his father than with anyone else, but this. This, he's pretty sure about.
"Cass..." his voice pours out of his throat like wet gravel.
"I'm sure, Jacob." her mouth covers his again, tender and shy and so full of want, he can't help but growl a little. "I want this."
"Okay." Jacob agrees, because really, what else is he gonna do, at this point? "But, not here, sweetheart. The kitchen is not the place for this."
"Oh?"
"Nah. I don't do that, anymore." he holds her tight with one arm around her back, while the other curls, warm and deliciously rough, around her thigh. "I can't love and leave you, Cass."
Cassie can only grin, wrapping her legs around his waist, ankles interlocked against his lower back. She settles so easily against him, it feels as if she belongs there, as if they were made for each other. Her hands cradle his face and they get so lost in sharing soft, intimate kisses, neither of them are sure their eyes are ever open.
How he finds his own bedroom with his arms full of Cassie, who is rather intent on kissing him senseless, is a bit of a mystery but when they do make it, he wastes no time in kicking the door closed.
And, that's about as rushed as it's going to get. He'll be damned if it's just sex, he has with Cassie. She's worth more than that. If he's going to do anything with this girl, it's going to be showing her how worthy of worship she is.
...
"Don't try to see it. " his voice is damp heat against her ear, drawing her shoulders up in a delicious shudder that rolls down her spine. "Just feel it, Cass."
"Okay."
Her eyes widen a little, curiosity and pleasure almost getting the better of her. Her feet touch the floor and Jake releases his hold on her - okay, so she might whimper a little at the loss of contact - but it doesn't last for very long.
He's warm and heavy at her back, dipping his head into that curve where neck slides into shoulder, and pressing kisses there, smiling at the jump in her pulse. "Undo that last button, sweetheart."
Shaky hands barely manage to shove the little pearl button through the hole. Jacob curls his fingers around the collar and tugs it down her arms and letting it drop to the floor in a pool of floral printed silk. Bare skin prickles, nerves tingling when his hands find the flat plain of her stomach and tug her back a little bit, pressing her back into his torso.
Jacob commits to memory the happy little sigh he elicits when he mouths the skin across her shoulder, pushing her bra strap to hang loose against her biceps. He kisses a trail back across her shoulder and the back of her neck, nuzzling her hair out of the way to once again, move the satin strap of her bra to hang loose against her arm.
"Anyone ever tell you, you're a beautiful woman?" Jacob murmurs, trailing warm kisses down her arm, one hand trailing down her forearm and the other hand finding the clasp of her bra.
"J-j-just you."
"Oh," Jake's mouth presses a little firmer, resisting the urge to grin like a cocky little shit when her bra clasp comes apart in seconds. "That's a real shame, darlin'. A woman like you should always know how beautiful she is."
"You think so?" Cassie feels exposed, standing there in just her skirt and undone bra.
"I wouldn't lie to you, Cassie." Jacob's voice is rough, lips moving in an interesting way against her skin. "And, 'til my dyin' day I will make damn sure you understand just how beautiful you are."
Tears sting.
No-one has ever found her worth such compliments. Calling her nicknames like the weirdo, or the nerdy girl, or even some horrible names that she isn't comfortable thinking about, anymore. Oh, sure, she still remembers them, probably always would, but she doesn't like to think about it.
But, Jake.
He seems so insistent that she is beautiful. That she is worth every single compliment, every bit of attention he's lavishing her with. She doesn't realize he's standing in front of her again until he's lifting her head up and thumbing away the dampness caught in her eyelashes.
"What's this about?" his mouth replaces his fingers, kissing the light dusting of freckles along her cheekbone and even close to her eye. "Why are you cryin', baby?"
"Nobody's ever called me beautiful." Cassie confesses, voice so soft he almost has to strain to hear her. "They just called me a weirdo or the math girl or tumor chick. That was a popular one."
"That's not you at all." Jake's lips are on her neck, again. The other side this time and he still delights in how her pulse leaps under his mouth. He splays one hand in the small of her back, and uses the other to trace down her collarbone to her bra, tugging it down to join her blouse on the floor.
He mouths a hot trail down to the valley between her breasts.
"We could move to the bed...?" Cassie suggests, even as she sinks her hands into his hair.
"In a minute, Cass."
He's kneeling down, dropping to his knees to kiss galaxies, endless and hot, along her ribs, her stomach, and the waistband of her skirt, all while eager hands seek the zipper. His brain files away what elicits delicious noises and what makes her almost vibrate with pleasure.
"She walks in beauty, like the night." Jacob growls the words against her stomach, presses them into her skin, ingrains them in her head. His hands finally find the zipper and the faux leather skirt joins the rest of her clothes on the floor. "Of cloudless climes and starry skies," he's standing, again, stormy blue eyes meeting her own. "And all that's best of dark and bright meets in her aspect and her eyes."
"That's not the end of it..." Cassie teases a little, even though the words have tied her stomach into a tight knot.
"No, but that's all I can remember." Jake grins, splaying a hand against her back and spinning them toward his bed. "You ain't wearin' much, Cassie."
"And, you're wearing too much, Jake." she tugs playfully on his white button down. "Shouldn't you be getting rid of this?"
"All in good time, darlin'."
She finds the bed with the backs of her knees and when she lays down across the width of it - well, she's not certain, but she thinks she hears him whimper. Maybe, it's the fiery halo her hair has formed or how her breasts are practically begging for attention. Maybe, it's because now he can finally see her panties. Which aren't much more than a scrap of raspberry lace. Or, maybe it's the way her body curves and sinks into the mattress, stomach smooth and concave between the prominences of her hipbones.
Okay.
He's feeling pretty damn revved up, now.
With a low, dangerous growl, he pounces and Cassie laughs in delight. He's warm and comfortably heavy on top of her, one hand pressing her hips into the mattress, while his other arm curls above her head, and his hot mouth covers her breast.
"Jake!"
Oh my.
His lips work in tandem with his tongue until she is panting, sensations crashing like waves on a shore. "Sparks. Heat. Summer."
"Cass, feel. Don't see." he's nuzzling the underside of her breast, before kissing a trail over to the other one.
But, she can only focus for a second.
Oh, yes, the sensations are delicious and she appreciates his mindfulness of pleasure mixing with her synesthesia but she also thinks it's high time, he feel a little of what she's feeling right now. It's a split second calculation, despite the overwhelming feeling that her brain is going a little mushy at the moment, and she's begins her quest for the upper hand.
Her hands already in his hair work to her advantage because when she gives a little tug, his mouth stops, and a groan spills forth. And, Lordy, is it a delicious sound; all throaty baritone and vibrating against her breast. She tugs just a little harder and the sound he makes is not at all masculine.
She'd never heard him whimper.
Cassie takes full advantage of this moment of weakness to shift up and force him over onto his back in a maneuver that's not so much graceful as it is clumsy. But, it works. It gets him on his back and she's straddling his waist before he can protest.
"Now, Cowboy." it's a little less sweet Cassie and a little more Cassandra when the apple of discord had transformed her into the absolute worst version of herself. Deep, cool voice and a little bit of danger in her big blue eyes. "It's my turn to have a little fun."
The buttons of his shirt seem like a good start. And, an agonizingly slow one. He growls a little when she undoes the first button and teases the little triangle of skin with a feather soft kiss.
The second button pops open to reveal bare skin where there would usually be a little triangle of fabric from his preferred undershirts. A scrape of her teeth has him uttering a hoarse but sharp curse. She continues on in this manner, following each undone button with a scrape or a kiss or a lick, depending on what she feels like doing.
By the time, she slides the last button through the hole, it seems as if more than just his shirt is undone. Jacob appears to be unraveling; hips stuttering against the mattress, self-control battling desperation, hands fisting in the covers, and eyes closed. Cassie takes a moment to observe him, noting how his lips part, and the muscles in his arm bunch, wrought with tension.
His abdomen is a mouthwatering landscape of firm, tanned skin and chiseled muscle. She doesn't waste any time on her exploration. Kissing the broad expanse of his shoulders and chest, sinking her teeth into that delectable spot where his pulse leaps beneath the skin. Scraping teeth and tongue along each pectoral, wrapping damp lips around his dark nipples until they harden in her mouth.
Jacob can't say he's ever had this particular experience.
He has had sex.
He'd even venture to say he's had some damn good sex. But, that's all it ever was. Sex. Quickies in the dirty bathroom stall of a bar with the taste of beer and whiskey in his mouth and the sloppy use of an expired condom. Or, a one-night stand in a cheap motel room with a woman, who probably liked to use them and lose them, meaning his wallet would be empty the next morning. But, foreplay is new territory for him. At least, when he is the recipient as in this case.
He isn't used to being cared for, having his own pleasure tended to. Especially not by Cassie, who is apparently multi-talented with her mouth. Because, his body is currently responding to her in ways he didn't know possible. Nerves flaring, spikes of white-hot pleasure down his spine, muscles twitching under the scrape of her teeth. All the things he'd never experienced before make him feel like he's about to explode.
When she pushes his shirt aside, it is little reprieve as she immediately strings hot kisses along the ridge where his lower abs meet his hip flexors before repeating on the other side. It's that mouth-watering V-shape that women love so much and Cassie would be lying through her pearly white teeth if she didn't confess to wondering if Jake hid one under all of his layers.
"You should know that you are a beautiful man." Cassie isn't really one for poetry - words had always seemed like foreign territory, unfamiliar and dizzying, so she settles for the kind of compliment she can do. Mathematical. "I think DaVinci would need a new ratio for you. His Golden ratio just doesn't seem quite perfect enough." she grins wickedly against the firm skin of his stomach. "I don't think he would have ever found an equation that could properly define you, though."
"I don't think I've ever been paid such a compliment, darlin'." Jake pants, lifting his head just enough to look at her through hooded eyes.
No, he hasn't. And, it's a shame, really, because he is just gorgeous. Perfection. Maybe not mathematically, but her favorite equations were...perfectly imperfect. No logical solution, no single answer, or defining digit. He would need his own equation of beauty because there is nothing even the most brilliant mathematician could produce from any textbook that would ever come close.
"You are gorgeous." she practically purrs, still lavishing his abdomen with all the attention he gave her. "DaVinci would have had to come up with a new ratio, just for you. But, I think I'd rather have that particular honor, if you don't mind?"
Honor, right.
What is that, again?
His brain seems to be short circuiting at the moment, what with her mouth doing things to him. Wonderful things. Sinful things. "Up," she's tugging on the open front of his shirt. "I want this off."
Jake sits up just enough to get shrug his shirt off and fling it somewhere. Cassie seems content with him in this position, grabbing his shoulders, and bearing down, pressing her hips deeper into his until he's nestled against her; the zipper of his jeans catching on her lace panties.
"God, Cassie!" His moan is low and dangerous, desperation flaring, despite his exercise in restraint.
Her hips roll, pressing, rubbing, providing them both with much needed friction. She yelps into his mouth when he grabs the back of her neck and pulls her down into a bruising kiss. Body still moving above his, her hands fumble for the button of his jeans, undoing them.
"Off." she tugs on the waistband, hooking her fingers into his underwear. "Off."
"Wait!"
Cassie practically jumps out of his lap, wondering what could have caused him to bring everything to a screeching halt. She crumples at what seems like rejection, trying in vain to cover herself with her arms, and Jake sighs, almost immediately realizing that he'd been quick to stop things.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart." he looks up at her, blue eyes dark with arousal, mouth turned in a frown at what he'd done, however unintentional. "I wasn't tryin' to stop you, but we might need some protection."
"Oh."
Jake leans over and yanks the drawer of his nightstand open, fumbling around until he found what he was looking for. Tossing the foil packet on the bed for retrieval when it's time for application, he stands and makes his way to her, combing a gentle hand through her hair. "Now, where were we?"
"Why don't you tell me?" Cassie's auburn lashes flutter against her cheekbones.
"I'd rather just show you."
They stumble back to his bed, mouths fused, eager hands groping for what little clothing remained between them. His jeans and those wonderfully tight black boxer-briefs hit the floor followed by her panties. He presses her into the mattress and reaches between them to feel her, grinning like a little shit when her legs part to give him access.
God.
She's more than ready.
He gropes for the condom, ripping the foil packet open with his teeth before she takes it from him, rolling it on, and tossing the wrapper aside. He hooks his hand around one of her knees, pulling it up to his hip, before he sinks into her, pressing her deeper into the mattress. Her eyes close and a deep moan tears from her throat, a departure from the higher pitch of her voice.
"Dammit, Cassie!" because, she feels so good, better than any other woman he's ever been with. Like warm silk wrapping around him.
He sets a slow, punishing pace guaranteed to leave them boneless and satisfied. It's a steady build, all wet friction and clenching muscles. Heavy breathing and deep moans fill his bedroom, both of them unable to vocalize just how good it feels to be joined like this. How right it feels to slow it down and feel it out.
Cassie's synesthesia hasn't taken control. Hell, she feels more anchored to reality in this moment, sharing such intimacy with him, than she ever has before. Jake's always been her anchor, her rock, and now is no different. It feels very natural to be with him in this way.
It feels just as natural to him. Being with women in the past, sure it felt good at the time, but it'd always been so fleeting. Here, now, with her, it's not just sex. He's worshiped this woman, shown her how a lady should be treated, made love to her. And, nothing has ever felt better.
She comes with a sharp, surprised gasp, mind seeming to splinter at the rush, free falling into another plane of existence. And, he isn't far behind her, cursing harshly into her hair as relief and pleasure explode up his spine and his hips move erratically, frantically trying to hold onto something that feels so good, it almost hurts.
It takes them both a few minutes to come down from that high and Jake slowly rolls off of her so as not to crush her beneath him. They both just lay there panting, sweaty, sated, and completely and utterly boneless.
"Son of a bitch!" Jake breathes, turning his head to look at the redhead next to him. "Cassie, that was - "
"Incredible?" Cassie smiles in return.
"I'm not sure that's enough." he just shakes his head, reaching for her. "C'mere, sweetheart."
Despite the sticky need for a shower, among other things, she curls into his side, resting her head on his chest. He wraps an arm around her back and sinks his fingers into her damp curls. Satisfied silence envelopes them and it's only when their breathing has returned to normal that Cassie lifts her head to look at him.
"We're gonna do that, again, right?" she inquires softly. "I mean, I don't want this to be a one time thing and I hope you don't - "
"Cass, this was not just a one time thing." Jake laughs drowsily. "And, if I could move, I'd prove it to you."
"Good." content with his answer, she settles back into him, feeling the same drowsiness she can see in his heavy eyes. But, before she lets sleep claim her, she just has one more thing to get out of the way. "Hey Jake?"
"Yeah, Cassie?"
"I love you."
"I love you, too, darlin'."